A tutorial that illustrates how Python can be used to analyze and
visualize astronomical data (much like one can do in IDL) has been
written and now is available at:
http://www.scipy.org/wikis/topical_software/Tutorial
While much of the focus is on astronomical data, most of it probably
could serve as a general tutorial as well if sections on more advanced
pyfits usage are skipped (only a few pages). There are appendices that
contrast Python/numarray with IDL, I'd be happy to include the
equivalent for Matlab if anyone who is familiar with both would like to
write such appendices.
Suggestions for improvements are welcome.
Perry